Eurostat publishes 2020 report on EU progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals
Today, Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, has published the “Sustainable development in the European Union — Monitoring report on progress towards the SDGs in an EU context – 2020 edition”. The report provides a statistical overview of progress towards the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the EU. Sustainability is an fundamental objective of the European Union and a clear priority of the von der Leyen Commission. All Commission policies, such as the transition to a climate-neutral and resource-efficient economy, are conducive to the achievement of the SDGs. As of this year, progress made by Member States towards SDGs is integrated in the European Semester, with a summary assessment and a dedicated annex in each country report setting out the individual Member State’s SDG performance and the trend over the past five years. Overall, today’s report confirms that the EU has made progress towards almost all SDGs over the past five years. In particular, significant progress has been made towards the achievement of ‘Peace, justice and strong institutions’. The report also shows good progress in achieving ‘No poverty’, ‘Good health and well-being’, ‘Zero hunger’ and ‘Decent work and economic growth’. There has been some progress in reaching Sustainable cities and communities’, ‘Quality education’, ‘Partnership for the goals’, ‘Responsible consumption and production’, ‘Affordable and clean energy’, ‘Reduced inequalities’, ‘Life on land’ and ‘Industry, innovation and infrastructure’. More efforts are needed to reach the SDGs on ‘Climate action’ and ‘Gender equality’. Commissioner for Economy Paolo Gentiloni said: “Showing the progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals in the EU, this report is our latest contribution to the debate on the shape of Europe and our world in 2030 and beyond, and on the action we must take to get there. As we battle the dramatic repercussions of the pandemic, we must not lose sight of global challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss and growing social and economic inequality. Implementing policies to reach the SDGs is our roadmap to a better world and Europe must be at the forefront of that journey.”